Sector Mercy

Sector Mercy was a section of the Douaumont fortress defenses on the Western Front of World War I which was the site of heavy fighting between Entente and German forces during the spring of 1918.

The British, French, and Americans launched an assault against the German-held fortress, but the initial assault petered out due to spirited resistance from the defending Imperial German Army regiments. The Allied forces were forced to fall back from the blockhouse walls and retreated to their first line of trenches, where they prepared to face a German assault. The German soldiers fired down on the Allies from the walls, but the Germans were picked off as they appeared on the ramparts; their assault was soon forced back, and the Allies counterattacked against the blockhouse walls. A grenadier from the British Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers claimed upwards of 30 kills while picking off German soldiers on the Allied left flank, gunning down the densely-packed German defenders in the blockhouse tunnels and sniping German soldiers on the walls from a nearby hill. The German attempts to retake the blockhouse walls failed, and the Allied troops proceeded to enter the fortress' corridors and engaged in close-quarters combat with the German defenders. Ultimately, the Allies secured the fortress, defeating the Germans and clearing the sector of Central Powers resistance.